Duberstein said he was influenced by another prominent Reagan official – Colin Powell – in his decision.

“Well let’s put it this way – I think Colin Powell’s decision is in fact the good housekeeping seal of approval on Barack Obama.”

Powell served as national security advisor to Reagan during Duberstein’s tenure as chief of staff.

Duberstein spoke with Zakaria about his final days in the Reagan White House. The Reagan official, along with Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Carter National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, also discussed the transition process to a new administration.

Watch the full discussion on the next administration this Sunday at 1 p.m. on Fareed Zakaria GPS.

What Motivates Me to Support Barack Obama

Wed, 08/20/2008 – 4:57pm — Joel Haugen

While my crystal ball may be no clearer than anyone else’s, I am sure that we need to choose a President who exemplifies the 21st Century and is not just an echo of the Cold War mentality. I personally admire John McCain, but I simply cannot see him inspiring the nation and our world economic partners to work together and solve our very daunting problems. My Obama support-decision matrix includes the characteristics of Judgment, Temperament, Charisma, Intellect, Adaptability, Virtue, Vision, Traditional Republican Values, and dedication to “Main Street.” Barack Obama is without question the superior choice for me based on my analysis below.

Temperament: Inside and out of the next administration, the next president needs a personality and disposition that does not inflame problems, but intelligently resolves them.

Charisma: Is there any question?

Intellect: Obama finished at the top of his class at Harvard while McCain finished very close to the bottom of his class at Annapolis; if there is doubt, listen to each of them respond to a complex question.

Adaptability: I measure this characteristic by a person’s ability and willingness to compromise to achieve a solution to a problem

Virtue: Obama’s choice to serve his Chicago community and forego lucrative options to apply his acknowledged skills, speaks volumes about his character.

Vision: I see Obama’s view of the world as deep and nuanced to reflect reality as opposed to ideology. I am particularly enthusiastic about his plans for converting to clean energy, improving our environment, and encouraging national service.

Judgment: Obama sees the world in wide angle and Technicolor, as suggested by his views on Iraq, Afghanistan, Cuba, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, etc. Even the Bush administration is beginning to use some of the diplomatic tools Obama has long been discussing.

Traditional Republican Values: Republican Presidents from Lincoln through Ford were strong advocates for equal rights, balancing labor and business, consumer protection, protecting the environment, a humble but vigorous foreign policy, promoting peace through strength, fiscal integrity, and unafraid of great challenges. A traditional Republican would never condone torture or cruel and inhuman treatment of prisoners regardless of circumstances. Dwight D. Eisenhower probably embodied these traits as well as any Republican President; I see Barack Obama in the same vein, although arguably even more inspirational.

Main Street Values: America is comprised mostly of folks from “main street” who earn their wages, work in their communities, raise their families, and aspire to create a better world for their children. Barack Obama has worn the shoes of main street. His values and success are derived, not from privilege or position, but through real life experience, hard work, and commitment to his ideals and family.

The opportunity to elect such a leader does not come around often; I hope that America does not squander this opportunity!

(CNN) — No, hell has not frozen over, but a Buckley is backing a Democrat for president.

Christopher Buckley, the son of the late conservative icon William F. Buckley, said Friday he’s decided to back Barack Obama’s White House bid, the first time in his life he will vote Democrat.

“It’s a good thing my dear old mum and pup [sic] are no longer alive. They’d cut off my allowance,” Buckley, a columnist for the conservative National Review, wrote on the Web site The Daily Beast Friday.

Buckley, who praised McCain in a New York Times Op-Ed earlier this year and defended the Arizona senator’s conservative credentials against wary talk-radio hosts, said McCain is no longer the “real” and “unconventional” man he once admired.

“This campaign has changed John McCain,” Buckley wrote. “It has made him inauthentic. A once-first class temperament has become irascible and snarly; his positions change, and lack coherence; he makes unrealistic promises, such as balancing the federal budget ‘by the end of my first term.’ Who, really, believes that?

“Then there was the self-dramatizing and feckless suspension of his campaign over the financial crisis,” Buckley added. “His ninth-inning attack ads are mean-spirited and pointless. And finally, not to belabor it, there was the Palin nomination. What on earth can he have been thinking?”

But Buckley made clear he’s not just voting against McCain, praising Obama for his “first-class temperament and first-class intellect.

“Obama has in him—I think, despite his sometimes airy-fairy ‘We are the people we have been waiting for’ silly rhetoric—the potential to be a good, perhaps even great leader. He is, it seems clear enough, what the historical moment seems to be calling for,” Buckley wrote.